99 Days to Miami football: Winston Moss best 99 in Hurricanes history
Today is 99 days until the Miami football team kicks off the 2020 season against Temple. This is the first of a series counting down every day until Miami and Temple meet by profiling the best player to wear the number corresponding to the days left to begin 2020.
Winston Moss wore number 99 for the Miami football team as a defensive end and linebacker from 1983-86. Moss played defensive end during his freshman season that ended with the Hurricanes winning the national championship in the Orange Bowl with an upset over Nebraska.
As a sophomore Moss played both DE and LB. After an 8-5 record by the Miami football team during Moss’ sophomore season, the Hurricanes returned to the elite in the nation finishing with an 11-2 record during his junior year in 1985. Moss started every game as the strongside LB and finished third on Miami with 75 tackles.
The best games for Moss seemed to come against Florida. Moss had 12 tackles against the Gators in 1985 and 17 with nine solo tackles and a sack as a senior in 1986. The 1986 Miami football team lost as a significant favorite against Penn State in the Fiesta Bowl. It was Miami’s second Fiesta Bowl loss in three seasons.
The 1986 Miami defense was loaded with future NFL players. Bennie Blades, Jerome Brown and Miami’s single-season sack leader Dan Stubbs were among the players on the Hurricanes stout defense. The 1986 Hurricanes allowed 150 points in 12 games to finished fourth nationally in scoring defense.
Moss finished the 1986 season with 87 total tackles, and 60 solo though in only nine games. Following the 1986 season, Moss was a second-round pick of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the 1987 NFL draft, Moss played 11 NFL seasons for the Buccaneers, Los Angeles Raiders and Seattle Seahawks.
Following his playing career, Moss stayed in Seattle as a defensive quality control coach in the 1998 season. Two years later, Moss had the same position with the New Orleans Saints. A season later, Moss became the linebackers coach under Jim Haslett through 2005. From N.O., Moss was with Green Bay from 2006-2018.
Next. ESPN names 1986 Miami top 10 CFB not to win title. dark
More recently, Moss was the head coach of the Los Angeles Wildcats of the XFL this past season. The Wildcats finished 2-3 in five games before the season was halted because of the Coronavirus pandemic. After losing their first two games, Moss led the Wildcats to victories over DC and Tampa Bay to finish the incomplete season.